1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus for supplying flat sheets such as pulp sheets or the like and, more particularly, to such an apparatus which is capable of carrying a desired number of flat sheets at a time from a pile of flat plates such as pulp sheets or the like for the next step in a process.
2. Description of the Prior Art
An apparatus has been known in which, in order to take out flat sheets one by one from a pile of flat sheets and then to carry each sheet to a roll type feed mechanism for delivery to the next step in a process, the flat sheets are collected one by one by means of a sucking force by virtue of a vacuum from the top of a vertically placed pile or from the outermost side of a horizontally placed pile and this sheet is thence carried to the roll type feed mechanism.
However, in such a vacuum type apparatus, the suction function of the suction device is not performed in a desirable manner in a case where the deformation of flat sheets is large; on the other hand, if the sticking force between the flat sheets is large, a few sheets will be carried at a time, causing a variation in the number of sheets delivered. Pulp sheets are one kind of such flat sheets wherein the deformation phenomenon exists and the sticking force between the flat sheets is large. The pulp sheets are produced by forming pulp into sheets like cardboard and a desired number of such sheets are supplied at a time to a defiberizing machine in a manufacturing or similar process relating to a non-woven fabric which is produced in a method in which the pulp sheets are defiberized and the fibers thus obtained are deposited and fixed. A constant number of these pulp sheets are piled (this pile is called a bale) and this bale is wrapped by a large pulp sheet and then bound by wiring material such as wire or the like. A proper number of these bales are put together and bound similarly by wiring material such as wire or the like. In general, at present, the combined batch of bales is carried in such a bound state. Deformation is therefore large at those portions where the wiring material is in contact with the bales, so that the suction device of the carrying apparatus cannot function in a desirable manner which could also lead to a case where it is necessary to supply the flat sheets to the feed mechanism manually, one by one, especially with regard to a few sheets at the outside portion of each bale. Further, since pulp contains a large amount of water, the sticking force caused when the pulp sheets are pressed against each other is large. Consequently, even when it is intended to deliver the pulp sheets one by one by means of the suction device, several sheets can be lifted up at a time and supplied to the feed mechanism, causing a risk of variation on the number of sheets supplied in the next process step.
Moreover, although in terms of working efficiency it is often desirable, depending on the field of application, to carry a few sheets at a time, the number of sheets that can be constantly carried is limited to one in the vacuum type carrying apparatus, so that it is impossible to improve the working efficiency.